Skip to main content

The bystander effect and what to do to break free from it.

Imagine this, you just got off of work after a long day. It’s late and you take the train back home. The train is full of people also getting back home from work. When you sit down in the train, a person sits next to you. They keep nagging you for some money. You keep telling them “no, I don’t have any money I’m sorry”, but the person keeps nagging. Eventually they start to cuss you out for not giving you anything. You desperately look around trying to make eye-contact with someone to ask for help, but everyone simply looks away. Eventually the person gets off at the next station and the peace returns. You wonder to yourself, why did so many people ignore my situation? Should I be doing the same if I see another person getting harassed?

Now what made me think off this situation was after I recently came across the following YouTube video: Bully Bystanders: You Can Make a Difference (HumanRelationsMedia Company, 2011). See the bottom of the page for the video. In this video, there was a boy getting bullied by another boy in a bus. The children around him watched, but did not help. Another boy walks in and tells us how the school does have a policy against bullying, but that it doesn’t help much. The boy tells us that he should probably try to break up the fight, but really it is none of his business and he decides to do nothing. What the video is trying to tell us is that you, as bystander, can make a difference. After watching this short video I wondered to myself: why do people often choose to be a bystander, instead of helping the victim? What can we do instead of being a bystander?  

Let’s first take a look at what “the bystander effect” is. "The bystander effect, also known as bystander apathy, refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely they are to help a person in distress"(MSEd, 2025). People are more likely to help when there are no others around. When people see that no one else is helping a person, they most likely won’t help the person either. We see the bystander effect happen a lot when it comes to bullying. This can be because of multiple reasons. Stopbullying (2021) tells us that some of these reasons can be: fear of being bullied themselves, fear of losing social status, they are not friends with the person being bullied or lack of knowledge about the person that is involved.

It's for people easy to get into the role as bystander. But what can we do against the bystander effect? Attridge (n.d.) tells us to make use of the ABC approach when you see something inappropriate happening: Assess for safety: If you see someone in trouble, ask yourself if you can help safely in any way. Remember, your personal safety is a priority – never put yourself at risk. Be in a group: It’s safer to call out behavior or intervene in a group. If this is not an option, report it to others who can act. Care for the victim. Talk to the person who you think may need help. Ask them if they are OK. Using this approach, it’s easier to break the bystander effect and help a person in need of help. 

To come to a conclusion, the bystander effect happens to a lot of people for many different reasons. Even so, it’s good to break free from it and try to help someone when they’re in a difficult situation. Try to help others when you can and break free from the bystander effect. 



Bibliography:
  • Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA). (2021, May 21). Bystanders are Essential to Bullying Prevention and Intervention. StopBullying.gov. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/research-resources/bystanders-are-essential 
  • Attridge, D. (n.d.). Be an active bystander. Breaking the Silence - Preventing Harassment and Sexual Misconduct. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.breakingthesilence.cam.ac.uk/prevention-support/be-active-bystander 
  • HumanRelationsMedia Company. (2011, June 15). Bully bystanders: You can make a difference [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7b2AC9R460 
  • MSEd, K. C. (2025, February 19). How psychology explains the bystander effect. Verywell Mind. Retrieved May 23, 2025, from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-bystander-effect-2795899 


Labels:

Comments

  1. EldouneMay 23, 2025 at 3:23 PM

    Hi, thank you for sharing this powerful and insightful blog. I really appreciated how you highlighted the ABC approach, it’s such a practical and empowering tool. I truly believe this is something that should be taught to children from a young age, so they grow up knowing how to respond in situations that are not appropriate. Teaching kids how to safely stand up for others can make a real difference in preventing bullying and creating a more caring community.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gender Differences in Bullying

  Gender Differences in Bullying Bullying is a serious problem that happens in many places with children and teenagers like in school in sports and in summer camps I work as a coach and monitor with boys and girls in these kinds of spaces so this topic is important to me One thing that I see often is that bullying is not always the same for boys and girls boys usually show more physical bullying like hitting pushing or shouting girls usually use more relational bullying like ignoring others spreading lies or leaving someone out of the group this is something that many studies say too For example a study by Villardón Gallego et al says that boys are more likely to be involved in direct and physical bullying while girls show more indirect forms like social exclusion or emotional pressure (Villardón Gallego et al 2021) this means that sometimes bullying by girls is harder to see but it can hurt just as much Also according to the International Journal of Environmental Research an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Audrie and Daisy (my opinions and way of thinking about it)

In this blog post, I brought you a documentary film mostly about 2 girls, Audrie and Daisy who had been sexually assaulted while being filmed and then cyberbullied. Audrie committed suicide in 2012 after all the things and the case happened to her. Daisy also tried to end her life by suicide multiple times right after the sexual crime and cyberbullying, but she was saved by her family every time (unfortunately in 2020, her attempt was fatal).    In the whole documentary we can meet both girls’ family and friends, talking about the things happened, which gives us a more emotional and devastating way of understanding what a sexual assault and cyberbullying can do to one person.   I do not want to give you spoilers or tell you the whole story; therefore, I would like to end my description here and truly advise you to watch it.     According to the World Health Organization, around 1 in 6 adolescents experience cyberbullying day by day and surprisingly and dev...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Definition of Bullying

 Hi everyone! The World Anti-Bullying Forum, together with UNESCO, created a Working group for establishing a new definition of school bullying. Its new definition keeps the idea that bullying requires unwanted repetitive aggressiveness and imbalance of power, and adds the idea that this power imbalance is supported by societal and institutional norms. The emphasis is now in the idea that bullying is not an affair among students but a social process. The new definition is this one: School bullying is a damaging social process that is characterized by an imbalance of power driven by social (societal) and institutional norms. It is often repeated and manifests as unwanted interpersonal behaviour among students or school personnel that causes physical, social, and emotional harm to the targeted individuals or groups, and the wider school community. You can find the document where it is explained  here . Fes
Post a Comment
Read more